ns, needles, small coal, ink, and straps--that are wanted in a
house were sold by hawkers and bawled all day long in the streets: fruit
of all kinds was sold from house to house: fish: milk: cakes and bread:
herbs and drugs: brimstone matches: an endless procession passed along,
all bawling their wares. Then there were the people who ground knives,
mended chairs, soldered pots and pans: these bawled with the hawkers. We
can no longer speak of the roar of London: there is no roar: the
vehicles, nearly all provided with springs, roll smoothly over an even
surface of asphalt: there are no more drays without wheels: there are no
more street fights: there is comparatively little bawling of things to
sell.

[Illustration: GRENADIER IN THE TIME OF THE PENINSULAR WAR.]

In those days people liked the noise. It was a part of the City life: it
showed how big and busy the City was since it could make such a
tremendous noise by the mere carrying on of the daily round. Could any
other city--even Paris--boast of such a noise? People who came up from
the country to visit London were invited to consider the noise of the
City as a part of its magnificence and pride.

What else had they to consider? What were the sights of London?

First of all, St. Paul's and Westminster Abbey. Then the Tower and the
Monument, the Royal Exchange and the Mansion House, Guildhall and the
Bank of England, London Bridge, Newgate, St. James's and the Horse
Guards. These were to be visited by day. In the evening there were the
theatres, Drury Lane and Covent Garden: and there were the Gardens.

The citizens were always fond of their Gardens. They were opened as soon
as the weather would allow, and they continued open till the autumn
chills made them impossible. The gardens were those of Vauxhall--still
in existence as a small park: Ranelagh, at Chelsea: Marylebone, opposite
the old Parish Church in High Street: Bagnigge Wells, which lay East of
Gray's Inn Road: Belsize, near Hampstead: the White Conduit House in the
fields near Islington: the Florida Gardens at Brompton: the Temple of
Flora, the Apollo Gardens, and the Bermondsey Spa Gardens, all on the
south side. These Gardens, now built over, were all alike. Every one of
them had an ornamental water, walks and shrubs, a room for dancing and
singing, and a stand for the band out of doors. People walked about,
looked at each other, had supper, drank punch--and went home. If the
Gardens were at any distan